A NEW LOOK AT VIOLETTA

 We would go to the ends of the earth to hear one of our favorite sopranos interpret the role of our favorite female character. Fortunately we only had to go to 112th St. to hear Shaina Martinez show us more about Violette Valery than we had ever realized. Aside from a stunning voice, it is just this sort of insight that keeps us involved and makes us want to hear the same opera repeatedly. It's all in Verdi's music, of course, but most singers fail to delve deeply enough into the role and surrender to stereotypes. 

Let us begin by thanking The Lighthouse Opera Company for this live performance of Verdi's masterpiece La Traviata. We can think of no other opera that has such a profound effect. It is the clearly drawn and complex characters of Francesco Maria Piave's  libretto (adapted from Alexander Dumas' La dâme aux camellias) and their growth from one act to the next that captivates us.

In Act I, Violetta is a brittle and shallow "party girl", burning the candle at both ends. In Act II, she is a woman who has surrendered to love and softened. She is struck down by some pretty bad news delivered by her lover's father, allowing the provincial papa to see her true feelings but bravely hiding them from her lover.

In Act III, she is a pathetic and desperate dying woman, longing for the support that may never come. Although we were not given an excerpt from Act I (the restrictions of the staging could not have allowed it) Ms. Martinez limned her characters growth in Act II and her fading hopes of Act III.

And here comes the part that was new to us, an aspect that the artist conveyed by the most subtle but effective coloration. Violetta is not just making a sacrifice to help her lover's sister achieve a respectable marriage; she is actually identifying with this pure young woman who has led a respectable life, is accepted by society, and enjoys protection by her devoted father. One could see in the artist's facial expression and hear in her voice how her nobility of character and identification with the other more fortunate woman made this sacrifice possible.

Not only did we thrill to Ms. Martinez' vocal artistry but we were captivated by the depth of her characterization. Who of us has not felt a combination of admiration, identification, and envy of those whose fortunes are far more sanguine than our own.

The vocal artistry was so perfect that it served the character without calling undue attention to itself. This is what we love to see in an opera performance. We think that those who focus on the high notes or other technical aspects are missing the boat.  The thrill of opera is in the drama! Do we believe it? Can we identify? Are we moved? Yes, yes, and yes.

The other performances were excellent. Tenor Michael Celentano did a fine job as Alfredo. His "De' miei bollenti spiriti" was as ardent as one would wish and we were pleased to note Mr. Celentano's growth as an artist since we heard him the last time.

Baritone Joseph Gansert was an effective Giorgio Germont, demonstrating all the smugness of a provincial ready to read the riot act to the unacceptable paramour of his wayward son. How effectively he rose to a position of empathy as he realized Violetta's quality! This set the stage for Act III when he comes to her deathbed with respect and affection.

The duet with Violetta "Pura siccome un Angelo" was finely rendered and his pleading with his son "Di Provenza mar e suol" revealed him to be well meaning but manipulative.

Violetta's companion Annina was performed by Ema Mitrovic and the role of Dr. Grenvil was taken by Charles Carter. Matteo Adams portrayed the messenger Giuseppe. These are small roles but were well done.

Conductor and pianist Stephen Francis Vasta stood in for the orchestra and managed to convey the textures of the music as well as a solo piano could. Director John Tedeschi did the best he could within the confines of a tiny stage in a lovely church. All he had to deal with was a couple of chairs and a lectern that stood in the way. Singers were obliged to keep their six feet of distance with exchange of letters merely suggested.

These are indeed strange times for opera and The Lighthouse Opera Company did their best. Exceptional voices and acting can make up for a lot of "lacks". The imagination of the viewer must compensate and what our mind's eye produced was definitely not the "Dr. Death and Big Clock" symbolism of the latest Metropolitan Opera iteration but rather scenes pulled from our memory of more traditional and effective productions. 

© meche kroop

OPERA WITH A TWIST

Soprano Amanda Zory onstage at National Opera Center

Accustomed as we are to reviewing emerging talent, we spend a lot of time enjoying bel canto and the lighter repertory to which the flexibility of young voices lends itself so well. We rarely get to hear large voices so it is a special treat for us to hear Verdi and Verismo opera arias and duets.

Thanks to Opera With a Twist we had a satisfying exposure to some works that we love. The "twist" was a surprise--some outstanding unamplified singing of cabaret and jazz which we will get to later.

There were several highlights to the operatic portion of the evening. The Executive Producer of Opera With a Twist is Amanda Zory, one of those big beautiful girls with big beautiful voices. As much as we love duets, we would have preferred to have heard her solo, since we didn't find her male stage partners to be as interesting. 

What we liked about Ms. Zory, other than her richly textured instrument, was her total commitment to whatever role she sang. As the seduced and abandoned Santuzza in Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana, she was totally convincing in her revenge seeking aria ("O Signore vi mando"), exposing Lola's transgressions to Lola's husband Alfio, a moment which sets the tragedy in motion. 

As Alfio, we heard promising baritone Joseph Gansert who sang with power and fullness of tone. To take his performance to the next level, he would do well to take some acting lessons. He needs to learn how to react to what his scene partner is revealing. 

He would also do well to learn to color his words to suit the material. This was particularly clear in "Eri Tu" from Un Ballo in Maschera, an aria in which Renato must express a wide palette of emotions toward the wife he suspects of infidelity. He sounded far more believable singing Alfio's joyous aria "Il Cavallo Scalpita" from Cavalleria Rusticana, an aria not requiring as much variety.

Ms. Zory's other scene partner, seasoned tenor Salvatore Motisi, certainly knows how to act and sang with a lot of "garlic", but with such volume that one could smell the garlic all the way to Seventh Avenue. We don't know why an experienced singer did not know how to scale his voice to the size of the hall. There was a deafening level of shouting. This was unfortunate because Ms. Zory's acting and singing were impressive in her aria of confrontation with Turridu "Ah lo vedi". 

Another performance we enjoyed in the operatic part of the evening was that of mezzo-soprano Vivien Shotwell whose choice of "O Don Fatale" from Verdi's Don Carlo was a good one, exploiting the rich texture of her voice.

The aforementioned cabaret/jazz performance highlighted the gifts of vocalist Leah Reis-Dennis. Our favorite of the set was "Bewitched" by Rodgers and Hart. To hear it performed without affectation and just enough gesture delighted us. There are probably lots of songs we would enjoy outside the realm of opera if we could hear this lovely lady sing them. She also performed Wardell Gray's "Twisted" and Duke Ellington's "Hit Me with a Hot Note". Christopher Wilson, the excellent Music Director/Pianist easily made the transition from op to pop and gave her the instrumental support that was required. 

Should we consider Sondheim's Follies an opera? Don't mind if we do! "Too Many Mornings" was given a nice performance by Ms. Zory and baritone Brian Michael Henry. We don't know this show but felt tempted by this duet to explore further.

Soprano Heather Petruzelli and tenor Byron Singleton performed a not terribly convincing "Ah, soave fanculla" from Puccini's La Bohême. Once again, the tenor shouted. We longed for a floated high note! Soprano Karen Luna did not capture our ear with a lackluster performance of "Se come voi piccina" from Puccini's Le Villi, an opera/ballet which we have never seen.

Perhaps the low point of the evening was the trashing of the "Flower Duet" from Leo Delibes' Lakme, a work which we usually find transporting. Ms. Luna and Ms. Petruzelli were upstaged by a distracting "modern dancer" named Kristen Mangione who reminded us of the satirical cartoons of dancers by Jules Feiffer in the late lamented Village Voice. The duet is about beauty of nature and flowers so why the harsh angular movements and pained facial expression? Why the hideous costume in two shades of maroon with bra straps showing? It was so appalling that we did not photograph it. Just in case you don't remember Jules Feiffer you can see these cartoons by googling "Jules Feiffer dancers'.

As per our custom, photographs of the other artists can be seen on our Facebook page Voce di Meche. 

If you are a fan of large voices you will want to attend a subsequent performance on Friday August 9th at 7:00 PM at the National Opera Center. Even when your picky reviewer was disappointed, the rest of the audience seemed to be having a wonderful time.

(c) meche kroop

MENOTTI'S RELEVANCE

Cast and Production Team for Gian Carlo Menotti's The Consul presented by Bronx Opera

Bronx Opera has been delighting New York audiences for over 50 years. Distance has prevented us from reviewing their productions with any great regularity.  Add to that the fact that they perform everything in English, a language which we do not enjoy hearing sung. We loathe translations and cannot name many operas composed in English for which we can drum up any enthusiasm.

However, we have enjoyed Gian Carlo Menotti's The Medium (with Caroline Nye in the starring role) and decided to take a chance on The Consul, and we are happy we did so. This is a very sad opera, and the saddest part of all is that the totalitarian governments and the consequent refugee situations still exist seven decades after Menotti selected this topic and wrote his own libretto. If only art could promote political change!

It doesn't matter which decade was chosen. Here, Director Rod Gomez chose to set the work in the 1980's.  It could have been today. The direction was excellent and the piece worked well as theater. Meganne George dressed the cast in drab attire and created a bare set out of scaffolding towers which held a door, a window, and....an oven.  If you see a gun in Act I, you are waiting for someone to get shot. When you see an oven...well, we are not going to tell you about baking bread!

The scenes alternate between the poor apartment of the Sorel's in a nameless totalitarian country, and a consulate which will remind audience members of any government agency they have visited in which there are endless forms to be filled out and passive-aggressive people in charge.

Mrs. Sorel's husband is involved in some kind of anti-government resistance and is on the run from the secret police who hound poor Mrs. Sorel into a state of misery. In this role we have the splendid soprano Mary-Hollis Hundley whose fine work we have reviewed on many occasions. We mostly recall her dignified and elegant creation of the Countess Almaviva at the Santa Fe Opera, and some lovely Russian singing at the George London Competition.

Last night will, we hope, be a breakout performance for her. She created a highly sympathetic character with whom it was easy to identify and the enthusiastic applause she received at the end let us know that others shared our opinion. Menotti, like most 20th c. composers, does not give the singers much to work with in terms of melody, and English can never show off the voice the way Italian does; still we were happy with what we heard.

As her mother-in-law, mezzo-soprano Caroline Tye was similarly affecting, especially when singing to the baby in the cradle. Ms. Tye is another artist we have reviewed and enjoyed upon many occasions. We lost count of how many performances she graced at Utopia Opera but our associations ran to another Menotti opera produced by New Camerata Opera in which she took the starring role in the aforementioned The Medium--a performance which encouraged us to attend last night.

Cara Search, who is new to us, had the role of the consul's secretary, the one demanding increasing numbers of forms to be filled out. Chuckles in the audience told us how many of us have had similar experiences with government bureaucracies. It was another fine performance.

Jeremy Moore did well as Mr. Sorel, appearing in the first act and again at the end. We recall his fine performance as Eugene Onegin for Utopia Opera. Joseph Gansert made a scary secret police agent.

Every tragedy needs some comic relief which was provided by Daniel Foltz-Morrison in the role of the magician/hypnotist Nika Magadoff who entertained the group of supplicants in the consul's office.  His appearance in the final scene was of a different nature but dramatically valid.

Baritone Conrad Schmechel portrayed John Sorel's friend Assan. We have only seen him previously in roles that allowed him to express his personality--we believe it was Papageno one time and El Dancairo another time.

The group waiting for visas comprised Ben Hoyer as Mr. Kofner, Leslie Swanson as a "foreign woman", Francesca Federico as Anna Gomez, and Amy Maude Helfer as Vera Boronel.

The same cast will perform next Saturday night and we recommend them highly. We took a look at the cast for the Sunday matinee performances and recognize some major talents there as well.  In either case you won't be disappointed.

Under the baton of Eric Kramer, the Bronx Opera Orchestra performed Menotti's music as finely as one would wish. We particularly enjoyed the wind section and paid particular attention to the oboe line, so beautifully played by Jacob Slattery. In Act II, he played the English Horn, the sound of which was (LOL) music to our ears. We sat close to the percussionist, Barbara Allen, who was on an elevated platform, and enjoyed that equally.

It seemed to us that Menotti's music was most lyrical during the interludes when no one was singing. We found that strange. We also found it peculiar that the tragic finale was accompanied by grandly heroic music. Was that meant to be ironic? If you, dear reader, can contribute something to our understanding of 20th c. music, please comment below.

(c) meche kroop